


Show His Eyes and Grieve His Heart

by hauntedlittledoll



Series: Tumblr Fic War [8]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman Incorporated (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst, Batman Incorporated #8, Gen, References to Shakespeare, Shakespeare is My Second Language, Shock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-08
Updated: 2013-06-08
Packaged: 2017-12-14 08:06:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/834596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hauntedlittledoll/pseuds/hauntedlittledoll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anonymous Prompt: "if Dick died instead of Damian?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Show His Eyes and Grieve His Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from William Shakespeare's "Macbeth."

To Damian’s everlasting shame, he called on his mother to save him.

She didn’t of course.

No, it was a combination of timing, luck, and the fury of a frightened female that saved Damian’s life in the end.  Ellie screamed to put Black Canary to shame and smashed the box into the floor with all her might.  It didn’t damage the artifact of course, but it did divert the Fatherless’ attention for a crucial moment.

Ellie ran, Drake ripped himself free of the wreckage, and Father arrived all in the space of that precious moment.  The Fatherless had bigger problems than Damian now.

The ten year old took a deep breath, pulling himself back together, picking himself up, and moving to Grayson’s side where he could lick his wounds in peace.

He prodded his older brother with one booted foot, gripping his bent wrist.  It was fractured; he knew that already, but it seemed more pressing now as the ringing in his ears persisted.

“Grayson,” he called, just a touch too loudly to compensate.  “Grayson, wake up.  Father needs us.”  He prodded his brother’s side a little harder, but Grayson didn’t stir.  “Grayson?”

Damian crouched painfully.  Bracing himself with one hand over the red swathe across Nightwing’s still shoulders, Damian gingerly poked his brother’s cheek.

“Grayson.”

He leaned forward, hitting his already badly-bruised knees and laid down beside the older superhero in the shattered glass.  There was no breath upon his cheek.

Damian squirmed, pushing himself back up onto his knees with his good hand before wiping away the glass fragments distractedly.

“Grayson, wake up,” he repeated imperiously.  The ringing in his ears was very bad now.

Damian knew that there was fighting going on in the background.  Father was battling the heretic.  Drake had acquired a tank.

Yet, everything had slowed down somehow as Damian sat uncomprehending at his older brother’s side staring at the unnatural cant of neck.  There was very little blood from the glass, and most of that was Damian’s.

“Stop this at once, Richard,” he demanded imperiously.  “Stop it, I say!”  He brought a fist down on his older brother’s back.  “Richard!”

And then, quieter: “Grayson?”

Damian wasn’t at full-strength, but Grayson wasn’t very heavy.  He managed to roll his older brother over, broken doll that Nightwing now was.

“Grayson,” he repeated, collapsing over the older vigilante’s chest, and curling into the man’s side.  “Please?”

The ringing in his ears almost drowned out the voice of a brother and instructions that Damian would not follow.  It wasn’t Grayson’s voice, although the command was almost the same.  “Run.”

Damian hadn’t listened the first time.

An explosion nearly deafened him, and then the others were there in the falling rubble.  The others realized what had been lost, but they would not allow Damian the time to mourn.

Drake snatched him off of their older brother, pressed Damian into his shoulder protectively, and sprinted for the exit.

Father followed with Grayson cradled to his chest like something precious, like a treasure, like a beloved son.

There was a weight like a stone grounding Robin now, filling his chest until the boy wondered how Drake could even carry him when Damian was surely the heavier burden.

Disobedience had a cost.


End file.
